News & Rankings

Economic Development October Recap

Municipal Updates

Cary

Align Technology Announces New Location in Cary

Wake County Economic Development and the Cary Chamber of Commerce announced that Align Technology, Inc. established its first U.S. East Coast operation in Cary, with plans to invest $4 million and create more than 100 jobs in Wake County over the next five years. The Cary facility is one of only two locations in the U.S., which is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. To read the full announcement, clickhere.

DB Global Technology Expands in Cary

DB Global Technology announced it would expand the Cary office by 250 additional jobs. This will bring DB Global's total headcount in Cary to nearly 1,000 employees. In additional to the new jobs, the company will also invest over $9 million. More details can be found here.

Cary Ranked No. 7 Best City for Economic Potential

Cary was recognized in September at the IEDC convention as the No. 7 Best City for Economic Potential by fDi American Cities of the Future. See the synopsis and download the full report here.

Fuquay-Varina

Fuquay-Varina Updates Economic Development Incentive Policy

The Town of Fuquay-Varina is aggressively competing to recruit projects that expand the community's tax base and land uses. The Town Board is currently reviewing an updated economic development policy intended to focus on the recruitment of advanced manufacturing, high-end retailers, and in-fill development projects in its downtown.

Downtown Market Analysis and Mixed-Use Development Study

Fuquay-Varina is working with UNC School of Government, Development Finance Initiative staff to assist the town in exploring market research and an assessment of its downtown that can be used to leverage new infill mixed-use development that promotes a walkable and livable downtown.

Holly Springs

Holly Springs Hosts Job Fair

The Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce held a job fair where 20 participating companies interacted with more than 150 attendees. The majority of companies plan to conduct follow-up interviews with attendees. Companies anticipate filling roughly 30 positions with candidates from the job fair. Find out more here.

Holly Springs Leads Wake County in Job Growth

Holly Springs announced the ranking of No. 1 in job growth in Wake County, making it one of the strongest job markets in the US. Statistics revealed 26 percent job growth from 2010 - 2015. View the full story from the Triangle Business Journal here.

Rovisys Announces Relocation to Holly Springs

Rovisys, an electrical and instrumentation automation company, announced its relocation from leased space in Apex to a new site in Holly Springs where they will construct a 25,000 square feet office building in Phase I with plans for an additional 35,000 square feet expansion in coming years. Headquartered in Ohio, Rovisys has more than 525 employees worldwide and will open this office with approximately 115 employees with plans to hire additional staff on an annual basis.

Knightdale

Oak City Brewing Company

Oak City Brewing Company has been issued building permits to retrofit the space at 616 N. First Ave. into a taproom and brewery. The space includes a large outdoor patio and is adjacent to Knightdale Station Park.

Morrisville

Netsertive Continues to Grow

Morrisville-based marketing technology firm Netsertive just scored a $15 million investment to fuel both its products and its growth. The round was led by River Cities Capital Funds. CEO Brendan Morrissey says he's been acquainted with River Cities for some time, "so it was a really nice, natural conversation as we went out to begin a fundraising cycle in August." See the full story here.

Morrisville Growth Outpaces 2014 Estimate

A recently conducted special census showed that the Town of Morrisville has approximately 23,699 residents, 14 percent more than the state's 2014 projection of 20,753. Morrisville will now be eligible to receive more money from state appropriations that are based on per-capita formulas, including general revenue from taxes as well as specific funding for roads. For more details, click here.

Kimley-Horn, the homegrown engineering and design consulting firm that's become one of the largest engineering firms in the Southeast with offices across the U.S., is moving its headquarters to downtown Raleigh and at the same time working on a plan to expand its presence in downtown Durham. In downtown Raleigh, Kimley-Horn will consolidate its 200 executives, engineers, and staff that are currently split between its headquarters building on Weston Avenue in Cary and at its smaller design office in downtown Raleigh. The firm will take all of the office space on floors five through seven, or about 55,000 square feet, at the 17-story One Bank of America Plaza building on Fayetteville Street.

BrewPublik, a Charlotte-based beer technology startup, has announced its expansion to Raleigh and Durham. The company has signed a lease for a distribution center off I-440 in Raleigh. Raleigh was handpicked for this expansion because of the explosive growth coming from Research Triangle Park, as well as the enthusiastic reception received when BrewPublik indicated interest.

Morrisville-based Netsertive raised $15 million in a financing led by Cincinnati-based River Cities Capital Funds. The digital advertising company, founded in 2009, expects to add at least 50 employees to its 200 over the next 12 months.

HQ Raleigh, the downtown Raleigh entrepreneurial community that recently broke ground on the site of a 43,000-square-foot expansion, announced the launch of a new Strategist in Residence Program to coach startups of all stages within the workspace. Greg Hopper, a local entrepreneur and management and innovation expert, has been selected as the first Strategist in Residence at HQ Raleigh. Through the new Strategist in Residence Program, Hopper will be based at HQ Raleigh one day per week, and will assist entrepreneurs with business development and strategy. These targeted sessions will enable HQ Raleigh members to further create value for customers and grow their ventures. There are currently more than 140 startups scaling within the space, a number that is slated to at least double when the expansion opens in early 2017.

On the heels of an $11 million fundraiser, Pendo, a 2-year-old Raleigh startup, is planning to more than double its headcount. At 15 employees currently, there are 16 job openings. In 2016, the company hopes to add about 40 additional positions. Pendo is looking for 5,000 to 15,000 square feet of space to hold 80 to 100 people, and the search is focused on downtown Raleigh. Pendo's software intends to help tech companies such as SciQuest use data to build better online products and increase user engagement. Specifically, its platform delivers insights into customers' product usage to help management teams understand how to improve product engagement.

New & Expanding Metrics Since January 2015

Jan. -- Oct. 2015

New & Expanding Company Announcements

77

Jobs

2,615

Investment

$434 million

Since the beginning of 2015, 77 companies have announced relocations or expansions in Wake County. This accounts for the creation of 2,615 new jobs and investments of more than $434 million. Of those announcements, 40 (52 percent) are in Wake County Economic Development's cluster industries.

Project Metrics

Total Projects Received Since Jan. 2015

88

Potential Jobs

23,646

Potential Investment

$5.6 billion

Client Visits

25

Active Projects

48

Potential Jobs

9,961

Potential Investment

$1.9 billion

Since Jan. 1, 2015, Wake County Economic Development has received 88 new projects from companies considering relocations or expansions in Wake County. These projects would total 23,646 new jobs and approximately $5.6 billion of investment if each were to successfully locate in Wake County. WCED has also hosted 25 client visits to the area. Currently, Wake County Economic Development is working on 48 active projects. These projects would total 9,961 new jobs and approximately $1.9 billion of investment if each were to decide to locate in Wake County.

Recent News & Events

Business Attraction & Target Industry Clusters

WCED Site Assessment Update

In October, Wake County Economic Development continued to deploy teams of industry professionals to evaluate sites that scored between 62 and 74.5. Scores were generated through a series of questions posed by Creative Economic Development Consulting's Site Assessment Tool. The teams, composed of EDGE 5 investors, have been working with the municipal economic development partners to learn about their respective sites and provide feedback on logical next steps towards development. We are also offering an opportunity for the highest scoring sites to have their site and the marketing of the site evaluated in front of a panel of industry experts. Those presentations will take place in November.

Talent Attraction & Development

WCED Participates in NCWorks Partnership

Conference Presentation

The NCWorks conference is an annual multi-day event that brings together all partners in the NCWorks system for professional development and networking. Ashley Cagle of Wake County Economic Development and Kyle Greer, vice president of Economic Development for the Cary Chamber of Commerce, presented on a panel discussing regional project collaboration. The panel, moderated by Tom White of NC State, showcased how North Carolina successfully recruited CBC America's U.S. Headquarters from New York to Cary and CBC America's distribution center to Alamance County. The project, led by Ellen Tai of the Economic Development Partnership of NC, brought together multiple organizations from the public and private sector, including: NAI Piedmont and Carolantic, The Alamance County Chamber of Commerce, Wake County Economic Development, The Town of Cary, The Cary Chamber of Commerce, The Town of Mebane, North Carolina Community College System, NC State University, The NC Japan Center, Meredith College, Elon University, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Capital Area Workforce Development Board, and Regional Partnership Workforce Development Board. CBC Americas plans to create 67 new jobs in Wake County and 29 new jobs in Alamance County over the next five years.

Marketing & Public Relations

Forbes publishes "What You Can Learn From Entrepreneurs"

Forbes published "What You Can Learn From Entrepreneurs" by Council for Entrepreneurial Development President Joan Siefert-Rose. The introductory contributor article highlights some of Siefer-Rose's and CED's lessons learned from working with the Triangle's smart, innovative entrepreneurs. The piece is the first in an ongoing series of contributions by Siefter-Rose and CED. The series will highlight national trends related to entrepreneurship and innovation while highlighting stories about the Triangle's successful entrepreneurs and startups, showcasing Raleigh and the Triangle as a top startup hub nationwide. This opportunity is a result of Wake County Economic Development and the City of Raleigh office of economic development'snational storytelling campaign.

Wake County Economic Development Hosts

Site Selectors FAM Tour

Wake County Economic Development hosted a group of national site selection consultants for a two-day in-bound familiarization tour on Oct. 1 and 2. The tour included visits to Wake County from six top consultants in order to familiarize them with Raleigh, Wake County, and the Triangle's strong business climate and quality of life. The two-day itinerary included a welcome breakfast with presentations from NC Commerce Secretary John Skvarla, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and regional leaders; tours of local companies including Citrix, Red Hat and Biogen; a real estate roundtable at PNC Tower; meetings with workforce development and higher education thought leaders; and presentations on transit and air service from local experts. The consultants left with a strong understanding of why Wake County continues to be a top location nationwide for business and careers.

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

All Things Open Explores Open Source

Some of the world's top developers, technologists, and business leaders in open source came together to discuss the current state and future of open source in the enterprise, and it all happened in Raleigh. Touted as the "Open Source Center of the Universe," largely due to Red Hat's downtown headquarters, Raleigh was the perfect place for minds to converge on open source topics ranging from UX design to Big Data. More than 1,750 people (up more than 40 percent from last year's conference) were in attendance this year, bringing together a very diverse and sophisticated group of techies. To read the full recap on All Things Open, click here.

Additional Announcements

New Staff Joins WCED

John Reid Sidebotham joined Wake County Economic Development as a project manager as of October. In his role, John Reid will work with companies that are considering expanding or relocating to Wake County. John Reid will also assist in the implementation of several other WCED initiatives, including the Site Assessment Program, commercial real estate engagement, and existing industry support.

Since September 2014, Wake County's labor force has increased by 25,386 and employment has increased by 26,261. This represents growth of 5.0 and 5.4 percent, respectively. The number of those unemployed----displayed in the graph above as the differential of labor force and employment----has decreased by 3.6 percent.

Unemployment Rate

Wake County's unemployment rate (the proportion of those unemployed relative to the labor force) has fallen from 4.9 percent in September 2014 to 4.5 percent in September 2015. This represents a 0.4 percent decrease.